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(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet- 1;

O. P. RITOHEL & G. DOQLITTLE.

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS'FOR TREATING PELTS.

Patented Mar. 11, 1884.

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(No Model.) 2 Sheets--Sl1eet 2. (LP. RITGHB'L 82; G DOOLITTLE.

METHOD OF AND'APPARATUS FOR TREATING BELTS. 170.295.050 1 PatentedMar. 11, 1884;

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J40 i i N. PETERS. Phummnn n am Vlnhingwm ma nines.

: ATENT i onannns r. RITCHEL AND 'enonon DOOLITTLE, or nmno-nronr, Conn, ASSIGNORS or onnrnmn ro THOMAS B. noomrrnn, or SAME PLACE.

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FORTREATING PELTS.

SPECIFICATION refinin part of Letters Patent No. 295,050, dated March 11, 1884.

Application filed August 9, 1583.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CHARLES E. Rrrcnnr and GEORGE DooLirrLn, citizens of the United States, residing at Bridgeport, Fairfield conn- 5 ty, Connecticut, have invented new and useful Improvements in Method of and Apparatus for Treating lelts, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates'to ccrtai n new and useful improvementsin the method of and appa ratus for treating pelts.

Ithas "for its object to successfully remove the master-hairs from the pelts in a rapid and uniform manner; and with these objects in view our invention consists in the peculiar method and construction of apparatus hereinafter particularly described and specifically claimed.

Prior to our invention, in the treatment of skins, the master-hairs, or, as they are sometimes called, water-hairs, are either removed by plucking or drawing the hairs bodily from the skin, or they are cut or sheared oil at a point below the upper surface of the fine hairs or fur. In the latter method it becomes necessary to very nicely adjust the mechanism which is to perform the shearing operation, and it is also necessary to employ a concurrently operating blast mechanism, in order that the liner hairs or fur shall be blown down out of the path of the cutting-blades. It

however frequently happens that, either by failure of perfect adjustment of the co-operating parts of the mechanism or by the peculiar and inherent properties of the skin being operated upon, the extreme points of the finer hairs or fur are also cut, giving to the finished skin a shingled or glazed appearance at such points as have had the natural smoothness of the for impaired by such accidental clipping. In the former of the two methods alluded to, the pelts have been fed over a supporting-bar or heated tube from the periphery of a rotating cylinder and the master-hairs presented to the action of a pair of grippingjaws connected to a-reciprocating carriage, which latter, after the jaws shall have confined a row of master-hairs between them, is

reciprocated so as to make a pull upon thehairs so confined, and thus pluck or pull them (No model.)

from the skin, this operation being facilitated, as is alleged, by heating the supporting bar or tube. In this last-described apparatus it will be readily seen that there must be some lost time and motion in moving the biting-jaws away to pull thehairs and then returning them to their. operative position with reference to Our invention involves the use of a rapidlyrot-ating cylinder within a case or chest, the

former having a series of slots or hair-inletports in its periphery, and the latter a single port or gate, with which the cyli rider-ports successive 1y register, and throughboth of which the long or master hairs are drawn by an exhaust-fan and wind-trunk into a bite between the inside surface of the revolving cylinder and the periphery of a rubber wheel or roll mounted at the end of a stationary hanger and'rotated by friction with said cylinder.

In order that others skilled may fully un derstand our invention, we will proceed to de scribe in detail the mode and apparatus successfully employed by us, and which forms the subject-matter of our present application, re

ferring by letters to the accompanying drawings, in.\vhich Figure 1 is a perspective view of one of our improved machines, looking from the rear. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the interior revolving cylinder with its driving hollow shaft and pulley and the interior supporting stationary shaft. Fig. 3 isa perspective view of the machine looking from the front, and with the face plate or cap of the cylinder case or chest removed. Fig. 4 is a central vertical section of the revolving cylinder and its case, taken at 9 alinepassing through the axis of motion, and exposing in elevation the driving'pulley and interior stationary sh aftwith the vertical frame and rubber gripping-wheel employed to coact with the revolving cylinder; and Fig. 5 is a plate or frame B, upon which latter is mounted a fixed support or bearing-block, in the opposite ends of which the stationary horizontal shaft D has its bearings, as already seen at A A, Fig. 1. The front end of the shaftDpasses through a tube or sleeve, E, in the hearing A, said tube or sleeve being furnished with a circular flange, F, secured by bolts G to the head or back disk II of the revolving cylinder I, the rear end of the tube or sleeve E being keyed to a driving-pulley, J, by which rotary motion is-iniparted to the cylinder I. The cylinderI is ineased or closed by a chest or jacket, K, the front L of which is bolted in place, as clearly shown at a, Figs. 1, 3, and 4. This chest or jacket K is rigidly connected or secured to the bed-plate or frame of the machine,

and the cylinder I is rapidly rotated within said case or chest. Suitably connected with the frame is an exhaust-fan arranged within a fan-case, M,which latter is connected with the front L of the cylinder-case by a wind-trunk, N, made in sections, so as to permitof separation, as clearly shown at Fig. 8. The fancase M is furnished with an exit-trunk, 0, through which the plucked hairs escape, as will be hereinafter explained. The exhaust wind-trunk N, as will be seen at Fig. 3, is connected with the front L of the case K at or above the center, so that the current produced by the exhaust-fan will be in an upward direction, as indicated by the arrows at Fig. 3; The cylinder I has its periphery penetrated by a series of gates or slots, 1), forming inlet-ports for the hairs and the-aircurrents, as will be presently explained. Depending fromthe end of the fixed shaft D (which, passing through the rear of the cylinder-case, projects therein, as clearly shown at Fig. 3) is a hanger or arm, 1?, in the lower end of which is pivoted a rubber cylinder or roll, Q, adapted to be compressed against the interior surface of the revolving cylinder I, so that all hairs penetrating or extending through the ports I) shall be quickly gripped between the inside surface of the short bridges 0, (see Fig. 5,) between the ports b and the periphery of the rubber cylinder or roll, the bite of which is of sufficient duration to enable the rotary movement of the cylinder I to extract the master-hairs by their roots. It should of course be understood that the cylinder case or chest K has an opening, (Z, Fig. 4, at its bottom, but is tight at all other points, so that by the action of the fan a cur-v rent is established in the direction described and indicated, so as to draw the hairs into the bite of the roll Q.

R is the skin-support, which is hinged at c at the rear end, and its front end supported on the top of a vertical rod, S, passing up through a sleeve, f, at the upper ends of supporting-rods T T. The lower end of the rod Sis connected by a quick thread with a revolving plate, U, which is adapted to be rotated by the operative, and thus bring the support B into proper relation with the cylinderchest K or the opening d therein.

The skin to be operated is drawn over the support It with the fur side upward, and as 7 the master-hairs come into alignment with the gate or port (I in the case K, the vacuum induced therein by the exhaustfan causes the hair to rise up through the gate (1 and pass also through the successive ports I) of the re volving cylinder I and into the bite of the rubber roll Q, which is rotated by its frictional contact with the interior of the cylinder, and as the latter continues to revolve while the bite of the roll Q also continues, the hairs are plucked or pulled from the skin at avery rapid rate, and are, after being released from the bite of roll Q, taken by the exhaust and de livered through the wind-trunk O to any suitable wire cage or receptacle, from which they may be removed and sold to hatters or others. It will be observed that the ports I) in the periphery of the revolving cylinder I have each a straight side and a beveled side, we having found that this construction facilitates the passage of the hairs into the bite of the rubber roll and the successful plucking'of said hairs.

We have shown and described the cylinderchest as connected near the center with the exhaust apparatus, and have found that this arrangement produ ces satisfactory results; but the exhaust may of course occur from some suitable point in the periphery of the cylinderchest; or it mightbe made centrally through the supporting-shaft D. lVe do not wish to be confined to the exact details of construction described, as they maybe varied considerably without departing from the spirit of our invention.

In passing the skin over the supporting-bar B it becomes necessary to let go of the edge of the skin a short time before the completion of the operation, and to avoid the tendency which would be thus induced of the edge of the skin being drawn bodily toward or into the gate cl, we arrange on the outside of the cylinder-case, on each side of the said gate, guard-plates V, hinged or pivoted at their upper ends, and extending downward in a eurved'direction sufficiently far to have their lower ends rest upon the upper-surface of the support R. Between these guard-plates and the cylindencase are arranged in any suitable manner springs, whichtend to hold the lower ends of the plates V in contact with the support, and thus serve to hold the skin at a proper distance from the gate (2.

WV is a scraper or guard-plate, arranged to impinge on one side of the rubber roll Q, and between it and the inside of the cylinder I,

'which serves to keep the plucked hairs from IIO returning to the ports in the cylinder, and to scrape d any hairs which might otherwise adhere to the rubber roll.

We desire to call particular attention to the fact that in the empioymentboth of our methed and apparatus the master-hairs of pelts are brought by the actionof an air-current toward and within the bite of the plucking mechanism, which action is the reverse of that resulting in the employment of ablast toward the skin and away from the plucking mechanism referred to hereinbefore as one of the existing methods in use. In such lastnamed method the blast is employed to drive the fur close to the skin and leave the hair standing, requiring, as will be seen, a very nice adjustment of the blast, while with us the current is toward the plucking mechananism and away from the skin, so that it is immaterial whether such current is obtained by an exhaust or blast, though for simplicity of structure we prefer securing it by exhaust, and it will thus be understood that while we have shown what we believe to be the best means of pluckin via, a rotary mechanism-still that-feature of our invention relating to the proper direction of the hairs toward the plucking mechanism can be advantageously employed in a machinehaving a plucking mechanism differing in charactor and construction from that shown and described by us; hence we do not propose to be limited in this particular.

We have found in practice that with a machine in which the cylinder I has a diameter of about twelve inches, with ports one an d threefourths inch long, we have been enabled to make about fourteen thousand pulls or plucks ,per minute; but we do not, of course, propose and be driven by frictional contact with the cylinder I, means for driving the cylinder, and an exhaust fan connected with the vacuum-chest K, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The combination and arrangement of the cylinder I, arranged within thevacuum-chest K, and connected by bolts or otherwise with the flanged end of a sleeve, E, provided with adriving-pulley, J, the central stationary shaft, D, extendingwithinthe chest K, hanger P, and rubber roll Q, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. In combination with the support It and vacuum-chestK, the guard-plates V, for controlling the skin after the removal of the band, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

4. In combination with the vacuum-chest K, cylinder I, and roll Q, the stripper or guard-plate W, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

5.. The revolving cylinder I, provided with a series of ports, I), having one side of each beveled, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

6. The-supporting-bar R, having its rear end hinged to the frame of the machine and its front end resting upon a iertically-adj ustable rod, S, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

r 7. The rod S, connected at its lower end to a revolving plate, V, by a quick screw-thread, and adapted to be raised and lowered by the rotation of the plate V, substantially as andfor the purpose set forth.

8. The combination and arrangement of the supports A, plate 13, bed 0, bearings A A, shaft D, sleeve E, flange F, cylinder I, pulley J, vacuum-chest K, hanger 1?, roll Q, exhaustfan, and trunks N O, substantially as shown and described. I

'9. The cylinder I, provided with inlet-ports in its periphery for the reception of the master-hairs, and adapted to be rotated to pull said hairs, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

10. The method of properly presenting the master-hairs of pelts to the action of plucking mechanism, which consists in the employment of an air-current toward the plucking mechanism, and placing the pelt within the influence of said current, whereby the'hairs are caused-to travel toward and within the bite of the plucking mechanism, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

11. The method of plucking pelts, consisting in placing the same within the influence of an air-current toward the plucking mechanism, then grasping said hairs thus presented and pulling the same bodily from the skin, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

12. The method of plucking pelts, consisting in placing them within the influence of an air-current toward the rotary plucking mechanism arranged within an exhaust or vacuumcase, drawing said hairs out by rotary action, and discharging the same into a suitable cage .or receptacle, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES F. RITGHEL. GEORGE DOOLITTLE. Witnesses:

WM. E. Drsnnow, FREDERICK O. PEE'I. 

